Food Control 69 (2016) 339e345

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Food Control
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodcont

The effects of tangerine peel (Citri reticulatae pericarpium) essential

oils as glazing layer on freshness preservation of bream (Megalobrama
amblycephala) during superchilling storage
Qi He, Kaijun Xiao*
College of Light Industry and Food Science, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This work was aim to the application of tangerine peel essential oils (TPEOs) as glazing layer on fish
Received 8 December 2015 preservation. In this paper, essential oils were respectively extracted from the peel of ponkan, bitter
Received in revised form orange and sweet orange. Their compositions were analyzed using GCeMS method. Fresh sample of
11 May 2016
bream was immersed into different TPEO for the formation of glazing layers on the surface and stored at
Accepted 12 May 2016

1 ±0.2  C for 25-days storage. A thorough study of freshness evaluation was carried out and statistics
Available online 13 May 2016
analysis was performed to analyze the effect of TPEO. The result showed that the glazing layers of TPEO
can effectively slow down the degradation process of fish samples and the resulting variations in elec-
Keywords:
Glazing layer
trical, moisture, chemical, microbial, sensory and textural characteristics. Additionally, statistical analysis
Tangerine peel showed that there are significant (most of p is less than 0.05) difference between control and treated
Essential oils sample, but insignificant (most of p is more than 0.05) differences among the samples with glazing layer
Bream of different TPEOs.The work indicated TPEOs had remarkable effect in the storage of aquatic products.
Superchilling storage © 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Chemical compounds studied in this article:
Limonene (PubChem CID: 22311)
g-Terpinene (PubChem CID: 7461)
Linalool (PubChem CID: 6432254)
b-Myrcene (PubChem CID: 32153)
a-Pinene (PubChem CID: 6654)
a-Terpinolene (PubChem CID: 11463)
b-Pinene (PubChem CID: 14896)
Octanal (PubChem CID: 454)
Sabinene (PubChem CID: 11051711)
Decanal (PubChem CID: 8175)

1. Introduction and resulting quality degradation of food material in the storage

Tangerine peel (Citri reticulatae pericarpium) is the dried peel of
diffent kinds of orange. In China, it is a commonly used herb to treat
a wide array of ailments, including bronchial asthma, dyspepsia,
and cardiac circulation (Yi, Dong, Liu, Yi, & Zhang, 2015). Also, it is
often used in the field of food processing as condiment to enhance
flavor and prolong shelf life, especially in the cured meat and fish.
As shown in modern research, the tangerine peel essential oil
(TPEO) contains many special active components which can effec-
tively suppress the activity of microbial and enzymatic reactions
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: fekjxiao@scut.edu.cn (K. Xiao).
(Ho & Kuo, 2014).
Bream (Megalobrama amblycephala) is one of the main farmed
freshwater species. Endowed with excellent biological character-
istics for culturists and high edible value for consumers, it has
become one of the most popular fish. However, bream is highly
perishable due to its high Aw and suitable pH. Actually, there are
about 50,000 tons of bream are wasted during storage and trans-
port each year (Song, Liu, Shen, You, & Luo, 2011). Therefore,
spoilage is a serious problem for the development of related
industry.
Spoilage of fish body results from the changes brought by bio-
logical or chemical reactions such as oxidation of lipids, the loss of
protein functionality, reactions due to activities of the fish’s auto-
lytic enzymes and the metabolic activities of microorganisms

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2016.05.019
0956-7135/© 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
340 Q. He, K. Xiao / Food Control 69 (2016) 339e345
(Hassoun & Karoui, 2015). These activities lead to a short shelf life
in fish and other seafood products (Hong, Luo, Zhu, & Shen, 2012;
Genç, Esteves, Aníbal, & Diler, 2013). Therefore, the development
of natural preservative glazings with both antioxidant and anti-
bacterial activities that prolong the shelf life of fish products is
desirable (Gonçalves & Gindri-Junior, 2009). In this work, the
effectiveness of TPEO glazings on the quality of superchilling bream
(Megalobrama amblycephala) fillets was compared.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Preparation of tangerine peel extract
Different kinds of fresh orange, including ponkan (Citrus retic-
ulata), bitter orange (Citrus bigarradia) and sweet orange (Citrus
sinensis) were purchased from local markets. Their peels were
collected and dried in a convection oven at 50  C for 48 h. Subse-
quently, each kind of dried peel material were chopped and sub-
jected to hydrodistillation for 6 h using a Clevenger-type apparatus
(kesijia Ltd., Beijing, China). The obtained oils were dried over hy-
drous sodium sulfate for 24 h, filtered, and stored at 4  C in brown
sealed glass vials until tested (Qi, Wang, Dai, & Zhu, 2015).
2.2. GCeMS analysis
Oils were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed using a
GCeMS 6890-5975 system (Agilent Technologies, Palo Alto, CA,
USA) equipped with an HP-5 MS fused silica capillary column
(30 m  0.25 mm i.d., 0.25 mm film thickness) and a 70 eV electron
ionization system (Pizzoni, Compagnone, Natale, Alessandro, &
Pittia, 2015). The flow rate of carrier gas (Helium) was 1 mL/min.
Injector and mass transfer line temperatures were set at 250  C and
280  C, respectively. The oil solution (1 mL) in hexane was injected
and analyzed under the following column conditions: initial col-
umn temperature at 40  C for 1 min, increased (3  C/min) to 250  C
and maintained for 20 min. Kovats indices were calculated for all
volatile components using a homologous series of n-alkanes
(C8eC25) in an HP-5 MS column. The major oil components were
identified by co-injection with standards (whenever possible) and
confirmed using the Wiley (V.7.0) and National Institute of Stan-
dards and Technology V.2.0 GCeMS library based on the Kovats
indices.
2.3. Fish sampling
Alive bream (Megalobrama amblycephala) was obtained from
local market with a weight of (441 ± 38.3) g averagely. The fish was
kept in plastic tanks with 25  C fresh water for 24 h. Then, it was
killed, scaled, gutted, processed into butterfly-like fillets and thor-
oughly washed in dilute NaCl solutions with ice (Ocan ~ o-Higueraa
et al., 2011).
The resulting fillets were divided into 4 groups. Control samples
were preserved with no treatment. The rest of samples were
divided into 3 groups and respectively immersed into the aqueous
solutions of different TPEO at room temperature (about 15  C) for
30 min before further storage (Soares, Oliveira, & Vicente, 2015).
The aqueous solutions of different TPEO were prepared at the
concentration of 4 mL/mL with using 800 r/min magnetic stirring at
60  C until the solutions was homogeneous. Then, all the samples
were stored in freezers (BCD-235NCQE, Le-jin Company, China) for
a 25-day preservation at the temperatures of
1 ± 0.2  C. Every 5
day, some samples of each group were taken from the freezers for
analysis. Each measurement was repeated at least three times for at
least three different samples. The results were obtained by aver-
aging. The data was processed by statistical analysis to determine
the difference between control samples and treated samples, and
among the samples with different TPEO treatment (Ko, Jao, Hwang,
& Hsu, 2006).
2.4. Electrical and moisture characteristic analyses
The electrical conductivity (EC) of the fish was measured using
the method described by Yao, Luo, Sun, and Shen (2011) with some
changes. 10 g of minced flesh was homogenized with 100 mL of
distilled water and stirred for 30 min. The mixture was filtered and
the EC of filtrate was measured using an EC meter (DDS-801, Hua-
cheng Factory, China).
The water activity (Aw) was measured by a water activity
portable instrument (Hygro Palm, Rotronic Company, Switzerland).
3 g of minced flesh was put into the measure chamber. The data was
collected when the value became constant (Tsironi & Taoukis,
2014).
2.5. Chemical characteristic analysis
The pH values were determined according to the GB/T of the
Chinese standard of aquatic products (GB/T 5009.45e2003). 10 g of
minced flesh was mixed with 90 mL of distilled water and filtered.
The filtrate was measured using a pH meter (Mettler Toledo, Zurich,
Switzerland).
The total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) was measured by semi
micro Kjeldahl method (Dehaut et al., 2014). 10 g of minced flesh
was mixed with 50 mL of distilled water, stirred for 30 min and
filtered. The filtrate was alkalinized with 10% suspension liquid of
MgO and submitted to Kjeldahl Apparatus (KDY-9820, Beijing,
China). The volatile base components were absorbed by an acid
receiver and determined by titration using 0.01 mol/L standard HCl
solution.
The K-value was measured as the method of Song et al. (2011). 2
g of minced flesh was homogenized with 2 mL of 5% perchloric acid,
centrifuged at 3600 rpm for 3 min and supernatant was collected.
This process repeated three times. The supernatant was adjusted to
pH 6.4e6.5 using 1 mol/L KOH and 5% perchloric acid and filtered
through a 0.45 mm membrane filter Then it was analyzed using
HPLC (Shimadzu, LC-20AT, Japan) equipped with SPD-20AV detec-
tor and VP-ODS C18 column (4.6 mm id250 mm, 5 mm). The
sample (20 mL) was injected at a flow rate at 1.0 mL/min, and the
peak was detected at 254 nm. K-values were calculated based on
the standard ATP, adenosine diphos phate (ADP), adenosine
monophosphate (AMP), inosine monophosphate (IMP), inosine
(HxR) and hypoxanthine (Hx) as defined by the following equation:
K value ð%Þ ¼ ½ðHxRÞ þ ðxÞ=½ðATPÞ þ ðADPÞ þ ðAMPÞ þ ðIMPÞ
þ ðHxRÞ þ ðXÞ  100
(1)
Peroxide value (PV) was measured using the modified method
of Lea (1952). The lipids were extracted from 50 g fish samples
using a mixture of distilled water, methanol, and chloroform
(25:100:100). 1 g of the extract was dissolved in 25 mL of solvent (2
part chloroform: 3 part acetic acid) and added 1 mL saturated po-
tassium iodide. The solution was kept in the dark for 10 min.
Subsequently, 30 mL of distilled water and 1 mL of '1% starch so-
lution were added. The solution was titrated with 0.01 mol equiv/L
Na2S2O3 until colorless. PV was calculated as follows:
PVðmeq=kgÞ ¼ ðS
BÞ  F  mol equiv=LðNÞ  1000=W (2)
where S, B, F, mol equiv/L(N), and W denote the titration amount of
sample, the titration amount of blank, the titer of 0.01 mol equiv/L
 Q. He, K. Xiao / Food Control 69 (2016) 339e345 341

Na2S2O3, the normality of Na2S2O3, and the sample weight (g), Table 1
respectively. 10 main chemical composition of different kinds of tangerine peel essential oils
using GC-MS method.
Thiobarbituric acid (TBA) was determined by the method as
a
described by Li et al. (2012). 0.2 g of minced flesh was dissolved in RI Components %RAb Identification methods c

1 mL of 1-butanol weighed in a 25 mL volumetric and made to P BO SO

volume. 5.0 mL of the mixture was pipetted into a dry stoppered
937 a-Pinene 1.28 1.17 2 MS, RI
test tube and mixed with 5 mL of TBA reagent (dissolving 200 mg of 974 Sabinene 0.33 0.1 0.27 MS, RI
2-TBA in 100 mL 1-butanol). The test tubes were stoppered, vor- 979 b-Pinene 0.6 0.72 1.02 MS, RI
texed and placed in a water bath at 95  C for 120 min, then cooled. 987 b-Myrcene 3.01 2.43 2.29 MS, RI
1030 Limonene 72.47 81.8 73.96 MS, RI
Absorbance of the mixture (As) was measured at 530 nm against
1059 g-Terpinene 11.23 8.42 7.93 MS, RI
that of water blank (Ab). TBA value (mg of malonaldehyde equiv- 1185 a-Terpinolene 0.47 0.63 1.32 MS, RI
alents/kg of tissue) was obtained by the formula: 1094 Linalool 1.87 0.8 5.14 MS, RI
1005 Octanal 0.55 0.38 0.69 MS, RI
50  ðAs
AbÞ 1203 Decanal 0.21 0.37 0.4 MS, RI
TBA ¼ (3) Total (%) 92.02 96.82 95.02
200
a
Retention index relative to n-alkanes on HP-5 MS capillary column.
b
Relative area (peak area relative to the total peak area). P is the essential
extracted from the peel of ponkan; BO is the essential extracted from the peel of
bitter orange; SO is the essential extracted from the peel of sweet orange.
2.6. Microbial characteristic analyses and sensory evaluation c
RI is the retention index, MS is mass spectrum.

Total aerobic count (TAC) was estimated as described by Zhang,

Li, Lu, Shen, and Luo (2011) with some modifications. 5 g of minced
flesh was aseptically homogenized with 45 mL sterile physiological
saline for 1 min. The homogenized sample was serially diluted
using 9 mL sterile saline for bacteriological analysis. TAC was
determined in plate count agar at 15  C for 3 days (AOAC., 2002).
Sensory analysis was evaluated as described by Fan, Chi, and
Zhang (2008) with some changes. The sensory quality of fish
samples were evaluated by ten trained panelists from the labora-
tory staff (six females and four males between 22 and 50 years old).
Four representative fish samples of the different treatments were
individually presented in covered small porcelain dishes to each
panelist under cool white fluorescent light in the sensory labora-
tory. The judges were not informed about the experimental
approach and the samples were blind-coded with 3-digit random
number. Panelists scored for color, odor, texture and general
acceptability, using a 5-point hedonic scale (0, rejection to 5, like
extremely).
2.7. Texture characteristic analyses
Texture Profile Analysis (TPA) was performed with a 6 mm cy-
lindrical probe, 5 mm/s of test speed, 5 g trigger load and two 5 mm
compressions separated by a 5 s interval (Hughes, Perkins, Yang, &
Skonberg, 2015). In each measured, the probe was pressed into the
same part of each sample. Force (N), area (N s), distance (mm)
between peak heights, and time (s) were used to calculate TPA
parameters (hardness, springiness and cohesiveness).
3. Results and discussion
3.2. Variations in EC and Aw
As shown in Fig. 1A, the EC of all samples would increase
throughout the storage. In the control groups, the average value of
sample EC was 3.323 ms/cm in initial time, and the values of
samples treated by the essential oils extracted from the peel of
ponkan, bitter orange and sweet orange were 3.334, 3.269 and
3.170 ms/cm, respectively. After 25-day storage, the EC of samples
from control group were 5.899 ms/cm averagely, and correspond-
ing values of treated samples were 4.091, 4.181 and 3.880 ms/cm,
respectively. The variations were similar with the study of Liu,
Jiang, Shen, Luo, and Gao (2015).
As presented in Fig. 1B the average Aw of the samples from
control, P, BO and SO group increased continuously from initial
values of 0.980, 0.976, 0.974 and 0.982 reduced up to 0.903, 0.941,
0.933 and 0.928 on the 25 days of storage, respectively.
During the storage, the muscle tissues of the fish sample
get decomposed and fluids flow out. It would lead to the
variations in Aw (Sanchez-Valencia, S anchez-Alonso, Martinezc, &
Mercedes, 2014). Meanwhile, as an indicator of the concentration
of electrolytes in the muscle tissues, EC was dependent on
the body-fluid balance and membrane structure permeability (He,
Zhu, Shen, Lin, & Xiao, 2015). Therefore, increasing storage
time would also lead to the variations in EC during storage
(Hong et al., 2013). Additionally, the antimicrobial and antioxidant
components in TPEO can effectively suppress body-fluid
loss and structure change caused by oxidation reaction or
microbial activity, therefore, there were significant (p < 0.05) dif-
ferences of variations in EC and Aw between control and treated
samples.

3.1. Obtainment of essential oils 3.3. Variations in chemical characteristic

After steam distillation, different essential oils with distinct
smell were obtained. The yields of essential oils extracted from the
ponkan, bitter orange and sweet orange peels were 0.84%, 1.07%
and 0.89%.
Table 1 listed 10 kinds of main total identified compounds of
TPEO using GC-MS analysis. These compounds accounted for more
than 92% of the total. As it shown, the main compositions were
Limonene (more than 72%), g-Terpinene (more than 7%), Linalool
(from 0.8% to 5%), b-Myrcene (about 2e3%) and a-Pinene (about
1e2%). Similar experimental results were obtained by the study of
Yi et al. (2015).
3.3.1. Variations in pH
Generally, the pH value of flesh fish sample is influenced by the
species, diet, seasons, level of activity or stress during the catch (Cai
et al., 2015). The variations in pH values during the storage were
shown in Fig. 2A. In initial time, the pH of the control samples was
7.35 averagely. This value was a little higer than the value of 6.0e7.0
reported in similar literature about pH values of fresh teleost fish
(Abdo & Romdhane, 2015; Song et al., 2011). It may be derived from
the water or feeds in the growth environment. While, the treat-
ment of TPEO could obviously reduce the initial pH value (reach up
to about 6.5). It may be caused by the dissolution of CO2 in the
342 Q. He, K. Xiao / Food Control 69 (2016) 339e345

6 1
Control
P 0.98
BO

EC (ms/cm)
5 SO 0.96

Aw
0.94 Control
4 0.92 P
BO
0.9 SO
3 0.88
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25
Time (d) Time (d)

Fig. 1. The (A) EC and (B) Aw changes of samples with different treatment.

7.8 Control 60
P Control
7.6 BO 50

TVB-N (mg/100g)
P
7.4 SO BO
40
7.2 SO
pH

30
7
6.8 20
6.6 10
6.4 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25
Time (d) Time (d)

4
25 Control Control
P P
20 BO 3 BO
PV (meq/kg)
K value (%)

15 SO SO
2
10
5 1

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25
Time (d) Time (d)

0.6 Control
P
TBA (mg MDA/kg)

0.5 BO
SO
0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1
0 5 10 15 20 25
Time (d)

Fig. 2. The variations in chimerical characteristic of samples with different treatment (A) pH; (B) TVB-N; (C) K value; (D) PV; and (E) TBA.

dipping process. During the storage time, the variations in pH
showed a downward trend firstly and then rise. The firstly decrease
may be due to the accumulation of the alkaline compounds, such as
ammonia and trimethylamine mainly derived from the microbial
action during fish muscle spoilage, and the followed increase could
be caused by an increase in volatile bases (e.g., ammonia and tri-
methylamine) produced by either endogenous or microbial en-
zymes (Manat, Soottawat, Wonnop, & Cameron, 2015).
3.3.2. Variations in TVB-N
TVB-N is related to the compositions change caused by spoilage
bacteria and endogenous enzymes (Hernandez et al., 2009). As
show in Fig. 2B, initial TVB-N value of samples from control group
was 4.86 mg N/100 g muscle averagely, while it was 4.59, 4.46, and
4.52 mg N/100 g muscle in the samples with treatment of essential
oils extracted from the peel of ponkan, bitter orange and sweet
orange, respectively. In literature, the initial TVB-N varied greatly
 Q. He, K. Xiao / Food Control 69 (2016) 339e345 343

5
10.5
Control
P 4.5

TAC (log CFU/g)

Sensory score
BO
7.5 4
SO
3.5 Control
4.5
P
3 BO
SO
1.5 2.5
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25
Time (d) Time (d)

Fig. 3. The variations in (A) TAC and (B) sensory evaluation of samples with different treatment.

among different kinds of fish. Our data were similar with that of red
sea bream (5.02 mg N/100 g) reported by Cai et al. (2014), higer
than crucian carp (2.06 mg N/100 g) reported by Yao et al. (2011),
and less than meagre (14.63 mg N/100 g) reported by Genç et al.
(2013). During the storage, TVB-N increased with storage time. At
the 25th day, the TVB-N of control sample was more than 50 mg N/
100 g muscle, while the corresponding value of treated sample was
only about 20 mg N/100 g muscle. It could be attributed to the
treatment of TPEO can effectively inhibited the degradation of
macromolecular constituents containing nitrogen caused by
spoilage bacteria and endogenous enzymes. Actually, the limits of
TVB-N content reported as acceptable for human consumption are
in the range 25e35 mg N/100 g (Anon., 2005), but this is suscep-
tible to variation among species.
3.3.3. Variations in K-value
Variations in K-value during different storage temperatures are
shown in Fig. 2C. Initial K-value of control samples was 4.47%
averagely, while the values of treated samples were 4.06%, 4.11%
and 3.99%, respectively. During storage, the difference of K-value
change between control samples and TPEO treated samples was
significant (p < 0.05). The average K-value increased up to 22.30% in
the control samples and only about 14% in the treated samples. In
addition, there is no significant (p > 0.05) difference among the
samples treated by different kinds of TPEO.
K-value is a reliable index for freshness evaluation of aquatic
products. As the report of Howgate (2005), IMP and AMP are
responsible for sweetness and fresh muscle characteristic, while
HxR and Hx production has been related to the loss of freshness and
flavor (bitterness). In general, a K-value of lower than 20% is
considered to be “sashimi” quality, and higher than 60% as the
rejection levels in the present study (Mohan, Ravishankara,
Srinivasa-Gopala, Ashok-Kumarb, & Lalithac, 2009). According, we
roughly estimated the shelf-life (the time before rejected) of con-
trol sample was about 70 day but that of treated sample was more
than 130 days. The values maybe not very accurate but it can
indicate TPEO layer has remarkable effects on freshness of the
tilapia sample.
3.3.4. Variations in PV and TBA
In the present study, PV was employed for determining the
formation of primary lipid oxidation products (Kulawik, Ozogul,

500 0.9

450
Hardness (g)

Springiness

0.86
400 Control
P Control
0.82 P
350 BO
SO BO
SO
300 0.78
0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 15 20 25
Time (d) Time (d)

0.7
Cohesiveness

0.6

0.5 Control
P
BO
SO
0.4
0 5 10 15 20 25
Time (d)

Fig. 4. The variations in texture of samples with different treatment (A) hardness; (B) springiness; and (C) cohesiveness.
344 Q. He, K. Xiao / Food Control 69 (2016) 339e345
Glew, & Ozogul, 2013). As shown in Fig. 2D, the variations in PV
values of all samples increased with storage time. Significant dif-
ferences were observed between the control samples and glazing
samples (p < 0.05), but no significant (p > 0.05) difference existed
among different treatment groups. The results can be due to the
similar antioxidative compounds in different TPEO which could
affect food materials during the storage. Additionally, TBA is
another widely used indicator to reckon the degree of lipid oxida-
tion (Li et al., 2015). Therefore, the variations in TBA value of
different sample would show similar trends with PVs during stor-
age. Our study of TBA confirmed it and the result was shown in
Fig. 2E. Similar trends of TBA was also present in similar studies
(Ramezani, Zarei, & Raminnejad, 2015).
3.4. Variations in microbial characteristic and sensory valuation
As shown in Fig. 3A, the Initial TAC of the control samples was
2.93 log CFU/g averagely, while the samples with different TPEO
layer were 2.05, 1.91 and 1.89 log CFU/g, respectively. During the
storage period, TAC showed a continuous increases trend and the
effects of glazing layer were significant. On the 15th day, the
average TAC of control samples was 6.24 log CFU/g, while the value
of samples with glazing layer reached 3.87, 3.7 and 3.43log CFU/g,
respectively. On the 25th day, the gap was further widened. The
corresponding values would reach 9.32 log CFU/g versus 5.62, 5.12
and 4.29 log CFU/g, respectively. The trends of TAC indicated the
rapid propagation of bacteria in fish flesh (Lovdal, 2015) and anti-
bacterial activity of essential oils (Abdollahzadeh, Rezaei, &
Hosseini, 2014).
In some study, the microbial activity in the sample was inves-
tigated using total bacteria counts (TBC), which includes both aer-
obic and anaerobic bacteria. However, as Fernandez-Segovia,
Escriche, Fuentes, and Serra (2007) claimed, some bacteria such
us lactic acid bacteria (LAB) would produce natural preservatives on
the anaerobic environment so that more counts of such bacteria
would to some extent lead to better fresh-keeping. Therefore, TAC
was more suitable for evaluating the freshness of fish samples
because it excludes this disturbance (Atrea, Papavergou,
Amvrosiadis, & Savvaidis, 2009).
Furthermore, microbial infection, as well as chemical corruption
would lead to the freshness degradation of the fish flesh during
storage (Nei, 2014). Therefore, the fish samples with tight
morphology, elastic muscle and fresh odor would degrade with a
loose morphology, decreased elasticity and off-odor gradually
(Boettcher, Steinhaeuser, & Drusch, 2015). As shown in Fig. 3B, the
initial sensory score of all samples was close to 5. After 25-day
preservation, the average sensory score of untreated sample
reduce to 2.56. Meanwhile, the value of samples with TPEO glazing
layer were still more than 3.8. Obviously, the process of fish
degradation was slowed down by TPEO treatment (Duman &
Ozpolat, 2015).
3.5. Variations in texture characteristic
Fig. 4AeC showed that TPEO glazing layer treatment signifi-
cantly (p < 0.05) affected the variations in each parameter of
texture characteristic (hardness, springiness, cohesiveness) of the
samples during storage (Feng, Jiang, Wang, & Li, 2012). After 25-day
storage, the hardness of control samples averaged 362 g, springi-
ness averaged 0.796 and cohesiveness averaged 0.4. Meanwhile, in
TPEO treated samples, hardness averaged from about 370 to 390,
springiness averaged from about 0.830 to 0.840, and cohesiveness
averaged from about 0.50 to 0.60. It indicated that the layer of TPEO
on the surface affected the texture compared to the unprocessed
samples.
4. Conclusions
The essential oils extracted from tangerine peel (Citri reticulatae
pericarpium) were appropriate to used as the material of glazing
layer to enhance effect of freshness preservation in the super-
chilling storage of fish. In this work, the essential oils extracted
from ponkan (Citrus reticulata), bitter orange (Citrus bigarradia) and
sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) with a component analysis by
GCeMS was proved to have excellent effects as a glazing layer on
the surface of bream (Megalobrama amblycephala) sample in the
25-day superchilling storage at the temperature of
1 ± 0.2  C.
Their significant inhibitions were shown on the variations in
structural, electrical, moisture, chemical, microbial, textural and
sensory characteristics of samples during storage. The results
indicated that the tangerine peel essential oils had an effective
application in the storage of aquatic products.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful for financially supported by Science and
Technology Program of Guangzhou, China (201508020086).
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